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Talking peace in the Middle East

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Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu shows a present given to him by US Secretary of State John Kerry in Jerusalem on May 23, 2013. Mr. Kerry is trying once again to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Jim Young/Reuters/Pool

Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on May 23, 2013. The US and Israel raised hopes for a restart of the Middle East peace process. Jim Young/AP/Pool

Escorted by security, Secretary of State Kerry (l.) walks with Frank Lowenstein, senior advisor to the secretary on Middle East issues, through the streets of Jerusalem just after 4 a.m. on June 30, 2013, after finishing a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that lasted more than six hours. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Secretary of State Kerry (l.) meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 23, 2013. Mr. Kerry was shuttling between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in hopes of restarting peace talks. Jim Young/Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (l.), former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Palestinian President Abbas meet in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Sept. 14, 2010 for Middle East peace talks. Alex Brandon/AP

Goats belonging to a Palestinian family are pictured against the background of a housing development in the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa in East Jerusalem on May 18, 2010. Former US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was in the region for separate meetings with the Palestinians and the Israelis as part of indirect talks between the two. Bernat Armangue/AP

Palestinian gunmen from the militant wing of the Islamist group Hamas carry equipment as they leave their position at the beginning of a cease-fire near the border with Israel, east of Gaza City, June 19, 2008. The six-month truce quieted tensions, but did not resolve any larger issues. Wissam Nassar/MaanImages/AP

President Abbas (r.), also known as Abu Mazen, meets with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, June 25, 2007. Mr. Olmert downplayed expectations ahead of the summit, saying the meeting, designed to boost Mr. Abbas in his struggle against Hamas, would provide a launching point for renewed peace talks, not the venue for a major breakthrough. Nasser Nasser/AP

Former President George W. Bush (c.) looks on as then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (l.) and Abbas shake hands at the opening session of the Middle East conference at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Nov. 27, 2007. President Bush hoped the Annapolis Conference would launch another round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Middle East leaders reached a 'Joint Understanding,' in part to revive the 2003 Road Map to a two-state solution. Gerald Herbert/AP

Palestinian children applaud the arrival of former Palestinian prisoners just released from Israeli prisons in front of the West Bank village of Idna, near Hebron, on June 2, 2005. Israel released 400 Palestinians as part of a cease-fire agreement between then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Abbas. Brennan Linsley/AP

An Israeli flag is seen as workers remove a mobile home from the hilltop settlement outpost of Beit El east, north of the West Bank town of Ramallah, on Aug. 4, 2003. In the background is the Palestinian village of Ein Yabrud. According to the US-backed 'road map' plan for peace, Israel had to dismantle all illegal outposts it had established since March 2000 – a total of about 60, according to the US government. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

A Palestinian man looks on as an Israeli border police officer arrives at Damascus gate, one of the entrances to Jerusalem's Old City, July 19, 2000. Sending the Camp David summit into overtime, President Clinton hoped to give Middle East negotiators a last chance to break their deadlock, but then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak decided to stop the talks and return home. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Former President Bill Clinton (c.), accompanied by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (l.) and deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (r.) walk on the grounds of Camp David, Md., on July 11, 2000, during a Middle East summit. A series of summits and peace plans, including the 1991 Madrid conference, the Oslo accords, talks at Camp David in the US and Taba in Egypt, the Saudi initiative and the 'road map,' all sketched the outlines of an elusive deal. Ron Edmonds/AP

In Norway, then-President Bill Clinton (c.) tried to join hands with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (l.) and deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, on Nov. 2, 1999. during an impromptu news conference prior to a meeting to discuss the future of the peace process in the Middle East. Lise Aaserud/AP

At the Palestinian police headquarters, a Palestinian police draftsman views a map detailing the new Palestinian areas marked in yellow, showing the West Bank land which had been transferred to Palestinian control as a result of the Sharm el-Sheik agreement in the West Bank city of Hebron, on Sept. 13, 1999. The handing over of the maps to the Palestinians signified the official transfer of administrative rule in these areas to Palestinian hands. Nasser Shiyoukhi/AP

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat (l.) passes a document for signing to then-Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eitan Ben-Tzur (r.) with then-Norwegian Ambassador Sven Svedman sitting in between them on Jan. 21, 1997. Israel and the Palestinians signed an agreement on the deployment of a 160-person-strong international observer force to be deployed in Hebron, with Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, and Turkey participating. Eyal Warshavsky/AP

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir listened to a speech by then-President George H.W. Bush at the historic opening session of the Middle East peace conference on Oct. 30, 1991, at Palacio Real in Madrid. Denis Paquin/AP

The original signed peace treaty between Israel and Egypt was on display in the Israeli Foreign Ministry prior to a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the peace agreement in Jerusalem on March 24, 2009. Sebastian Scheiner/AP

Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (l.) and former President Jimmy Carter have a lunch in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 8, 1980. Mr. Sadat was meeting with Carter to try to break through the stalled peace talks with Israel. AP

On Sept. 18, 1978, former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (l.) and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, embrace as former US President Jimmy Carter looks on during a White House announcement of a Middle East peace agreement reached at the Camp David Summit. AP